An Occupy shooter?

By Ben Smith

11/16/11 02:55 PM EST

If confirmed, this will likely be a much, much bigger image problem than the reports of crime in Occupy encampments:

Authorities suspect [Oscar Ramiro] Ortega-Hernandez] had been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park Police say Ortega-Hernandez may have spent time with Occupy D.C. protesters.

The mirror-image campaigns to tar the tea party and the Occupy movement are based, in no small part, on guilt by association. But nobody anywhere near the tea party ever took a shot at the White House.

UPDATE: The Post reports that investigators found no connection between Ortega-Hernandez and the Occupy D.C. movement, and that anger is the more likely motive. “He hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society,” an official told the Post.